Photographic print of Aviso Grille [Hitler’s naval yacht]

SIGNED BY KARL DONITZ IN BLUE PEN IN BLANK MARGIN. The print shows the vessel from the starboard quarter with one boat outboard on davits, one fender deployed and wearing the Kreigsmarine Empire ensign. Karl Donitz (1891-1980) was a leading Nazi and foremost admiral of the Nazi Kreigsmarine. During WWII he masterminded the U-Boat campaign against allied shipping; in 1945 he was nominated by Hitler as his successor. After Nuremburg he spent ten years in prison before retiring quietly near Hamburg until his death from natural causes in 1980. The Aviso Grille (1935-1951) was built as a state yacht for use by Hitler and other leading Nazi figures; should the Nazi invasion of England have succeeded, Grille was intended to convey Hitler and his entourage to London. Requisitioned by the British in 1945, she passed through a succession of private hands until finally being sold for scrap in 1951.